Rumor rationales: The impact of message justification on article credibility

We perform content analysis on a unique sample of 2074 first-instance published takeover rumors to study how the rationale underlying a publication relates to its credibility and its association with firm returns and rumor accuracy. While most takeover rumors are inaccurate, we find that distinguishing between various justifications of potential takeover activity as provided within the published article serves to predict takeover announcements,...